Electronics > Beginners

Buying 3D printer

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Monkeh:

--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on August 17, 2018, 12:56:57 am ---Unfortunately, I can't currently afford a good one (like Prusa i3 even in kit form), and I don't want to risk getting a cheapie that simply cannot produce dimensionally accurate prints. I don't mind spending time to fiddle with the device to calibrate and adjust its performance, though. (I do prefer the new Trinamic drivers, as they significantly reduce the stepper noise.)

Any suggestions to this particular use case?

--- End quote ---

Please ignore the naysayers who can take a perfectly functional machine and fail to make it work.

It's quite easy to start off with a basic machine like an Ender 3 and get good results - dimensional accuracy is basically a non-issue (always has been). You can certainly improve on a machine like that, especially noise-wise, but they do print just fine.

Mechatrommer:

--- Quote from: CJay on August 17, 2018, 11:22:25 am ---
--- Quote from: Mechatrommer on August 17, 2018, 10:41:38 am ---if the printer can accept standard gcode command/file, i believe any slicer producing descent gcode file can be used. i use KISSlicer that came with Repetier Host.

--- End quote ---
I think the files the FLashprint utility uploads are .stl but I'm really not certain, I'll have to check later.

--- End quote ---
i think it would be impractical to upload raw/native 3d format (stl) to printer and ask the printer to do realtime slicing to produce gcode that a machine mechanics can understand. its like sending jpg format to photo printer and ask the printer to decode and translate it into printhead's bitstream codes. i have a suspicion the spawn of cheap to not so cheap 3d printers (other than full engineering product like stratasys) throughout the globe including prusa inc was originating from OSS firmware such as marlin firmware et al (developed back then based on earlier cnc machine motion planner i forgot the name is by some good people you can search the history or learn from the firmware source code) and from some RAMP board hardware, and later each brand name close the door for their custom tuned FW and circuit. we can tell by the familiar LCD2004 GUInterface. the original fw is reading gcode for printing. if you have the chance to save the output file to sd card or sniff your printer usb comm, it should looks something like this.

--- Code: ---G92 E0
G1 Z0.200 F7200.000
G1 X35.655 Y-7.957 F7200.000
G1 E2.00000 F1800.000
G1 X35.728 Y-7.502 E2.01450 F2880.000
G1 X35.961 Y-7.426 E2.02222
G1 X36.929 Y-6.711 E2.06009
G1 X37.044 Y-6.673 E2.06392
G1 X45.189 Y-6.673 E2.32028

--- End code ---
those are gcode that a printer/cnc machine can understand. stl is just a bunch of vertices location of the model all over the place in 3d space. we'll need quite powerfull processor and memories to translate it to layer by layer bottom up polygons/motions in gcodes.

exe:

--- Quote from: Mechatrommer on August 17, 2018, 12:50:47 pm ---stl is just a bunch of vertices location of the model all over the place in 3d space. we'll need quite powerfull processor and memories to translate it to layer by layer bottom up polygons/motions in gcodes.

--- End quote ---

I think slicing on printer is a bit impractical. I change slicing settings depending on filament, nozzle diameter, temperature, complexity of model, etc. So, the printer needs to be aware of that somehow (or user needs to specify the profile).

PS octoprint can do automatic slicing and stl upload.

Mechatrommer:
btw. fwiw i built my own GCode Editor (which i received few decent donations from good people out there so i can buy stuffs cheaper in ebay :P) to edit vertices or positional commands in gcode graphically, because my 3d modelling SW is aging, it cant do  modern NURBS (i think FreeCAD or Blender will do a better job on this), so i have to do modification in gcode. remember gcode is supposed to be an endpoint machine code, like CAM file we are not suppose to edit in there. not as in native 3d model data (like stl etc) that we are suppose to edit our model in 3D SW such as Fusion 360, SolidWork, Inventors etc or even OSS free FreeCAD or Blender. i think i'm the only soul (or few other? i dont know last time i checked its nowhere to be found, or not free) who insisted on the workflow (edit in gcode) and some other people have found use to it.

CJay:

--- Quote from: Mechatrommer on August 17, 2018, 12:50:47 pm ---those are gcode that a printer/cnc machine can understand. stl is just a bunch of vertices location of the model all over the place in 3d space. we'll need quite powerfull processor and memories to translate it to layer by layer bottom up polygons/motions in gcodes.

--- End quote ---

Yeah, you're correct, I've just remoted into my machine at home and had a look at the backup of the internal SD card from the finder, it's full of .g and .gx files

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